John Levi Addresses ABA House of Delegates

ABA House of Delegates Written Remarks

Aug. 2024

Thank you so much, Mary, and to the American Bar Association, for recognizing me in this very special way. What an extraordinary award. I am deeply honored.

I have been blessed during my tenure as Chair of the Legal Services Corporation to have an outstanding Board of Directors, one of whom is here today – also a member of the ABA’s Board of Governors, Frank Neuner.

A few days ago on July 25, LSC marked its actual 50th anniversary. During these past 50 years, LSC has created a remarkable network of providers covering the entire country with 130 grantees having more than 900 offices and employing over 10,000 lawyers and paraprofessionals.

They do their work at some of the lowest pay in the profession, stretching their resources to make America’s promise of equal access to justice a lived reality for as many as possible.

In fact, during these 50 years, LSC’s grantees have helped nearly 75 million low income Americans with their civil legal problems! 75 million!

They are the real heroes of the LSC story, and this recognition belongs as much to them.

It also belongs to leaders of the ABA who saw the need for the creation of the Legal Services Corporation.  And Mary, you and those of your predecessors I have been privileged to work with have remained involved with us and have offered such strong and inspired leadership.

Thank you to my wonderful law firm, my professional home for 50 years, Sidley Austin. The firm has gone above and beyond in its support of me in this role and I could not have done it without them.

At Sidley, I was so lucky to have an amazing mentor and model of the consummate lawyer-public citizen, the late Newt Minow and it was where I came to know the President that would appoint me to this position. A number of my colleagues, including our Chicago office Chairs, have even joined us here today. I can’t say thank you enough!

A shout out to my late father, Edward Levi, who instilled in his family a zeal for ensuring the fairness of our justice system, founded the first civil legal aid clinic in a major U.S. law school when he was UChicago Law Dean in the 1950s, and where he encouraged me to work the summer after my first year of law school. And, who as United States Attorney General in early 1977, reminded us that the values upon which our justice system are founded can “never be won for all time, they must always be won anew.”

Mary, you have touched me greatly with your words and it would have been honor enough just to address this distinguished House of Delegates because as you’ve heard me say, the American Bar Association is the Legal Services Corporation’s most indispensable ally.

The ABA has stood by LSC during our many budget challenges and all these years has worked closely with us through the SCLAID Committee, the Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, and the Center for Pro Bono. And every year, ABA Day—really ABA Days— brings lawyers from all across the country to meet with members of Congress to advocate for LSC’s funding and access to justice.

So let me take a moment to add my welcome to Bill Bay who tomorrow assumes the ABA’s Presidency after many years of service to the ABA and our profession. We look forward, Bill, to continuing our important work together with you. 

It was of course, the ABA, and its leadership that advocated for federal funding of civil legal aid before LSC was even established.
During his ABA Presidency from 1964-1965, Justice Lewis Powell argued forcefully for federal funding of civil legal aid, and powerfully expressed the foundational significance of the mission of what would become LSC by pointing to what is etched on the building where he served with such distinction:

"Equal justice under law is not merely a caption on the facade of the Supreme Court building--it is perhaps the most inspiring ideal of our society. It is one of the ends for which our entire legal system exists…it is fundamental that justice should be the same, in substance and availability, without regard to economic status."

ABA support for LSC and its vital role in expanding access to justice has never wavered since then, as you, Mary, emphasized in April at LSC’s 50^th Anniversary commemoration in our nation’s capital:

“For decades, the American Bar Association has advocated for legal services funding as the embodiment of the federal government’s role in securing the core American value of equal justice under law.”

During this anniversary year, LSC has launched an effort we are calling, Protecting the Promise, to help raise awareness of the importance of access to justice and the gravity of the crisis for low-income Americans.
As a part of this initiative, LSC conducted a Harris Poll about civil legal issues and its results were just released a few days ago - they should be unsettling to all of us, even as they are hardly surprising. This new Harris survey found that more than half of Americans (56%) mistakenly believe they are entitled to free legal representation if they cannot afford a lawyer for all civil matters, and 18% are unsure.

That number is even higher for adults under 35, with 67% holding this belief.

The poll also showed that 59% of people who experienced a civil legal matter within the past three years didn’t seek out legal help from an attorney who could have been pivotal in getting their issues resolved. This includes:

• 82% of older Americans who were victims of scams or identity theft.
• 63% of people contacted by creditors or collection agencies
• 52% of natural disaster survivors

The Harris study confirms and deepens the findings of LSC’s 2022 Justice Gap Report, which revealed that low-income Americans do not receive any or enough legal help for 92% of their substantial civil legal problems. Recent studies also show that in housing courts across the country if you are represented you have a 90% chance of a favorable outcome, but if you aren’t, you have a 90% chance of being evicted.

We are also hearing that in 75% of the civil cases in our country’s state courts, one or both parties are unrepresented. Folks, how long can we as a profession allow this to continue?

During the past decade, our grantees have worked to obtain increases in state funding, have expanded the use of kiosks, portals, justice busses, trained paraprofessionals, and helped to create easy to use court forms, and are now developing ways to utilize the growing power of AI.

But at the end of the day, chronic underfunding of LSC and its grantees has really fueled this crisis in civil legal aid and forced them to turn away as many eligible applicants as they help because of a lack of resources.

As you’ve heard me say, 30 years ago, Congress appropriated $400 million for LSC. So, although we appreciate that for this fiscal year Congress maintained LSC’s funding at $560 million, clearly much more is needed to close this significant justice gap after many years of underfunding. 

That is why our bipartisan LSC Board voted unanimously just 10 days ago to request from Congress $2.1 billion for LSC’s FY 2026 budget. Such an increase would make a world of difference for LSC and its grantees.  

It would help our country live up to a core American value.

Our country’s founders believed that ensuring equal access to justice was what Thomas Jefferson called “the most sacred of the duties of a government,” and what George Washington called “the firmest pillar of good government.”

Funding legal aid is not an act of charity! It is frankly an investment in the rule and the future of our democracy, as Texas Chief Justice Nathan Hecht powerfully observed two weeks ago in his testimony at an extraordinary Judiciary Senate hearing on the Justice Gap:

“Unmet needs for basic civil legal services—the justice gap—direly impact people’s lives, court processes and efficiency, the economy, and society. I must add, as a steward of judicial office, that the justice gap also threatens the integrity of the rule of law itself, suggesting that it applies not to all and not equally, as promised, but only to people of means.”

As we commemorate LSC’s 50th anniversary and look in just a few years to the 250th birthday of the founding of our country, it is absolutely imperative that as stewards of our nation’s legal profession, we stand up and insist that our country move quickly beyond rationing justice, protect the rule of law, and ensure equal access to justice for all Americans. This crisis is happening during our time, and it is solvable in our time. We owe no less to future generations of Americans. 

 Thank you very much.